Indian
Chief Recalls Days When Superior Was Scene of Bloody Battles Between Red
Warriors

FROM:
Superior Telegram - February 17, 1915

An Indian
who visited the site of Superior before the white man came and when it
was the battlefield and hunting ground of the tribes which then
inhabited this region is in Superior today in company with the special
Indian commission which is investigating the rights of the claimants to
shares in the funds of the La Pointe Chippewa tribe. Chief Blackbird,
had of the La Pointe band of Chippewas is the man in question. According
to his reckoning he is 79 years old.

Chief
Blackbird was interviewed at the Hotel Superior by a Telegram reporter
this morning. As the chief speaks no English and the reporter is not
versed in the Chippewa dialect, the interview was carried on with the
aid of Dr. W.M. Wooster, a member of the commission, and one of the
Indians with the party who acted as interpreter.

"I came here
first with the chiefs when I was a little boy, so high (designating his
height with one hand) to attend a council of all the Indians around here
called to consider the plan to have the Indians further west," said the
chief. The council was held shortly after the signing of the Treaty of
1842 by which the Indians ceded Superior and the surrounding territory
to the Federal government. Indian Commissioner Rice represented the
government at the council.

"There were
Indians living all around this country, but the only village near where
Superior is now was at the entry to the harbor," went on Blackbird.
"What is now the heart of the city then was covered with scrubby Norway
pine trees and much of it was swamp."

Scene of
Bloody Battle

According to
Chief Blackbird, Superior was the scene of many bloody battles in the
early days, especially fights between the Chippewa and the Sioux tribes,
which then disputed the ownership of the territory between the
Mississippi River and Ashland. At one time the Sioux succeeded in
driving the Chippewas as far east as the Apostle Islands, the Chippewas
taking refuge on Madeline Island. Later, after the Chippewa's recovered
their strength, they rallied and drove the Sioux back across the
Mississippi River, which they never crossed again. A big battle here in
which several hundred Indians participated, took place about 1860,
according to Chief Blackbird.

Shortly
after the big fight there was a small battle between the tribes, where
Spooner is now located. A band of Chippewa hunters had gone on an
expedition as far west as the Mississippi River where they were
discovered by the Sioux who raised a band of warriors and pursued them,
catching up with them near Spooner where a severe engagement took place.

Chief
Blackbird did not participate in this particular fight but was on the
band of Chippewas, which hastened to reinforce the band at Spooner and
aided in driving the Sioux back across the Mississippi.
Blackbird is the son of a chief of the same name, who was chief herald
to the famous Chief Buffalo, head of all the Chippewas at the time of
the Treaty of 1854. Chief Buffalo, himself, was a half-breed, being the
son of old Chief Buffalo and a young English woman who was captured by
the Indians in one of their raids on the white settlements. This raid
was followed the outbreak of an epidemic among the Indians, which caused
the death of many women. Unable to get wives among their own people some
of the young Chippewas invaded the white settlements and captured half a
dozen white girls. This occurred about 1800 according to Chief
Blackbird.

At his home
at Odanah, Chief Blackbird has a big British flag, which was presented
to his father by British authorities in Canada, when old Chief Blackbird
and a number of others visited there. This visit is believed to have
taken place about the time of the war of 1812. Dr. Wooster, one of the
commissioners, tells how this old British flag, together with an
American flag, was carried at the head of a procession of Indians at
Odanah last September.

The chief
saw his first railroad train 54 years ago when he walked from Ashland to
the Fox River, then the terminus of the Wisconsin Central. From there he
took the train to Washington. He has visited the capital several times
since.

A painting
of the Rocky Mountains hanging in the Hotel Superior lobby interested
the chief greatly. Through an interpreter he asked Dr. Wooster whether
the Rockies were bigger than the Allegheny Mountains, which he had seen
a number of times. When he was informed that they were hundreds of times
larger, he expressed a wish to see them before he died.

"But the
Sioux live out there," said Dr. Wooster.

"I am not
afraid of the Sioux," remarked the Chief briefly in his native dialect,
drawing himself up to his full height.

Chief
Blackbird has promised D.F. Barry, Superior's well known photographer of
famous Indians, that he will sit for a picture before he returns to
Odanah. He has also expressed a desire to see Mr. Barry's collection of
Indian relics.